Aeneid II.402-505

Troy begins to disintegrate. Achilles' son strides onto the scene.

Ah, put no faith in anything the will of the gods opposes!

See Priam’s virgin daughter¹ dragged, with streaming hair,

from the sanctuary and temple of Minerva,

lifting her burning eyes to heaven in vain:

her eyes, since cords restrained her gentle hands.

Coroebus could not stand the sight, maddened in mind,

and hurled himself among the ranks, seeking death.

We follow him, and, weapons locked, charge together.

Here, at first, we were overwhelmed by Trojan spears,

hurled from the high summit of the temple,

and wretched slaughter was caused by the look of our armour

and the confusion arising from our Greek crests.

Then the Danaans, gathering from all sides, groaning with anger

at the girl being pulled away from them, rush us,

Ajax the fiercest², the two Atrides³, all the Greek host:

just as, at the onset of a tempest, conflicting winds clash, the west,

the south, and the east that joys in the horses of dawn:

the forest roars, brine-wet Nereus⁴ rages with his trident

and stirs the waters from their lowest depths.

Even those we have scattered by a ruse, in the dark of night,

and driven right through the city, re-appear: for the first time

they recognise our shields and deceitful weapons,

and realise our speech differs in sound to theirs.

In a moment we’re overwhelmed by weight of numbers:

first Coroebus falls, by the armed goddess’s altar, at the hands

of Peneleus: and Ripheus, who was the most just of all the Trojans

and keenest for what was right (the gods’ vision was otherwise);

Hypanis and Dymas die at the hands of allies:

and your great piety, Panthus, and Apollo’s sacred headband

can not defend you in your downfall.

Ashes of Ilium, death flames of my people, be witness

that, at your ruin, I did not evade the Danaan weapons,

nor the risks, and, if it had been my fate to die,

I earned it with my sword. Then we are separated,

Iphitus and Pelias with me, Iphitus weighed down by the years,

and Pelias, slow-footed, wounded by Ulysses:

immediately we’re summoned to Priam’s palace by the clamour.

Here’s a great battle indeed, as if the rest of the war were nothing,

as if others were not dying throughout the whole city,

so we see wild War⁵ and the Greeks rushing to the palace,

and the entrance filled with a press of shields.⁶

Ladders cling to the walls: men climb the stairs under the very

doorposts, with their left hands holding defensive shields

against the spears, grasping the sloping stone with their right.

In turn, the Trojans pull down the turrets and roof-tiles

of the halls, prepared to defend themselves even in death,

seeing the end near them, with these as weapons:

and send the gilded roof-beams down, the glory

of their ancient fathers. Others with naked swords block

the inner doors: these they defend in massed ranks.

Our spirits were reinspired to bring help to the king’s palace,

to relieve our warriors with our aid and add power to the beaten.

There was an entrance with hidden doors, and a passage in use

between Priam’s halls, and a secluded gateway beyond,

which the unfortunate Andromache⁷, while the kingdom stood,

often used to traverse, going, unattended, to her husband’s parents,

taking the little Astyanax to his grandfather.

I reached the topmost heights of the pediment from which

the wretched Trojans were hurling their missiles in vain.

A turret standing on the sloping edge and rising from the roof

to the sky was one from which all Troy could be seen,

the Danaan ships, and the Greek camp: and attacking its edges

with our swords, where the upper levels offered weaker mortar,

we wrenched it from its high place and sent it flying:

falling suddenly it dragged all to ruin with a roar,

and shattered far and wide over the Greek ranks.

But more arrived, and meanwhile neither the stones

nor any of the various missiles ceased to fly.

In front of the courtyard itself, in the very doorway of the palace,

Pyrrhus exults, glittering with the sheen of bronze:

like a snake⁸, fed on poisonous herbs, in the light,

that cold winter has held, swollen, under the ground,

and now, gleaming with youth, its skin sloughed,

ripples its slimy back, lifts its front high towards the sun,

and darts its triple-forked tongue from its jaws.

Huge Periphas, and Automedon the armour-bearer,

driver of Achilles’s team, and all the Scyrian⁹ youths,

advance on the palace together and hurl firebrands onto the roof.

Pyrrhus himself among the front ranks, clutching a double-axe,

breaks through the stubborn gate and pulls the bronze doors

from their hinges: and now, hewing out the timber, he breaches

the solid oak and opens a huge window with a gaping mouth.

The palace within appears, and the long halls are revealed:

the inner sanctums of Priam and the ancient kings appear,

and armed men are seen standing on the very threshold.

But inside the palace, groans mingle with sad confusion,

and, deep within, the hollow halls howl

with women’s cries: the clamour strikes the golden stars.

Trembling mothers wander the vast building, clasping

the doorposts and placing kisses on them. Pyrrhus drives forward

with his father Achilles’s strength; no barricades nor the guards

themselves can stop him: the door collapses under the ram’s blows,

and the posts collapse, wrenched from their sockets.

Strength makes a road: the Greeks pour through, force a passage,

slaughter the front ranks, and fill the wide space with their men.

A foaming river is not so furious, when it floods,

bursting its banks, overwhelms the barriers against it,

and rages in a mass through the fields, sweeping cattle and stables

across the whole plain. I saw Pyrrhus myself, on the threshold,

mad with slaughter, and the two sons of Atreus:

I saw Hecuba, her hundred women, and Priam at the altars,

polluting with blood the flames that he himself had sanctified.

Those fifty chambers, the promise of so many offspring,

the doorposts, rich with spoils of barbarian gold,

crash down: the Greeks possess what the fire spares.

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Heu nihil inuitis fas quemquam fidere divis!

ecce trahebatur passis Priameia virgo

crinibus a templo Cassandra adytisque Minervae

ad caelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra,               405

lumina, nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas.

non tulit hanc speciem furiata mente Coroebus

et sese medium iniecit periturus in agmen;

consequimur cuncti et densis incurrimus armis.

hic primum ex alto delubri culmine telis               410

nostrorum obruimur oriturque miserrima caedes

armorum facie et Graiarum errore iubarum.

tum Danai gemitu atque ereptae virginis ira

undique collecti invadunt, acerrimus Aiax

et gemini Atridae Dolopumque exercitus omnis:               415

adversi rupto ceu quondam turbine venti

confligunt, Zephyrusque Notusque et laetus Eois

Eurus equis; stridunt silvae saevitque tridenti

spumeus atque imo Nereus ciet aequora fundo.

illi etiam, si quos obscura nocte per umbram               420

fudimus insidiis totaque agitavimus urbe,

apparent; primi clipeos mentitaque tela

agnoscunt atque ora sono discordia signant.

ilicet obruimur numero, primusque Coroebus

Penelei dextra divae armipotentis ad aram               425

procumbit; cadit et Rhipeus, iustissimus unus

qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi

(dis aliter visum); pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque

confixi a sociis; nec te tua plurima, Panthu,

labentem pietas nec Apollinis infula texit.               430

Iliaci cineres et flamma extrema meorum,

testor, in occasu vestro nec tela nec ullas

vitavisse vices Danaum et, si fata fuissent

ut caderem, meruisse manu. divellimur inde,

Iphitus et Pelias mecum (quorum Iphitus aevo               435

iam gravior, Pelias et vulnere tardus Ulixi),

protinus ad sedes Priami clamore vocati.

hic vero ingentem pugnam, ceu cetera nusquam

bella forent, nulli tota morerentur in urbe,

sic Martem indomitum Danaosque ad tecta ruentis               440

cernimus obsessumque acta testudine limen.

haerent parietibus scalae postisque sub ipsos

nituntur gradibus clipeosque ad tela sinistris

protecti obiciunt, prensant fastigia dextris.

Dardanidae contra turris ac tota domorum               445

culmina convellunt; his se, quando ultima cernunt,

extrema iam in morte parant defendere telis,

auratasque trabes, veterum decora alta parentum,

devolvunt; alii strictis mucronibus imas

obsedere fores, has servant agmine denso.               450

instaurati animi regis succurrere tectis

auxilioque levare viros uimque addere victis.

Limen erat caecaeque fores et pervius usus

tectorum inter se Priami, postesque relicti

a tergo, infelix qua se, dum regna manebant,               455

saepius Andromache ferre incomitata solebat

ad soceros et auo puerum Astyanacta trahebat.

evado ad summi fastigia culminis, unde

tela manu miseri iactabant inrita Teucri.

turrim in praecipiti stantem summisque sub astra               460

eductam tectis, unde omnis Troia videri

et Danaum solitae naves et Achaica castra,

adgressi ferro circum, qua summa labantis

iuncturas tabulata dabant, convellimus altis

sedibus impulimusque; ea lapsa repente ruinam               465

cum sonitu trahit et Danaum super agmina late

incidit. ast alii subeunt, nec saxa nec ullum

telorum interea cessat genus.

Vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine Pyrrhus

exsultat telis et luce coruscus aena:               470

qualis ubi in lucem coluber mala gramina pastus,

frigida sub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat,

nunc, positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa,

lubrica convoluit sublato pectore terga

arduus ad solem, et linguis micat ore trisulcis.               475

una ingens Periphas et equorum agitator Achillis,

armiger Automedon, una omnis Scyria pubes

succedunt tecto et flammas ad culmina iactant.

ipse inter primos correpta dura bipenni

limina perrumpit postisque a cardine vellit               480

aeratos; iamque excisa trabe firma cavavit

robora et ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram.

apparet domus intus et atria longa patescunt;

apparent Priami et veterum penetralia regum,

armatosque vident stantis in limine primo.               485

at domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu

miscetur, penitusque cavae plangoribus aedes

femineis ululant; ferit aurea sidera clamor.

tum pavidae tectis matres ingentibus errant

amplexaeque tenent postis atque oscula figunt.               490

instat vi patria Pyrrhus; nec claustra nec ipsi

custodes sufferre valent; labat ariete crebro

ianua, et emoti procumbunt cardine postes.

fit via vi; rumpunt aditus primosque trucidant

immissi Danai et late loca milite complent.               495

non sic, aggeribus ruptis cum spumeus amnis

exiit oppositasque evicit gurgite moles,

fertur in arva furens cumulo camposque per omnis

cum stabulis armenta trahit. vidi ipse furentem

caede Neoptolemum geminosque in limine Atridas,               500

vidi Hecubam centumque nurus Priamumque per aras

sanguine foedantem quos ipse sacraverat ignis.

quinquaginta illi thalami, spes tanta nepotum,

barbarico postes auro spoliisque superbi

procubuere; tenent Danai qua deficit ignis.               505

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Find the glossary for Aeneid Daily here; subscribe to receive daily posts.

1. Cassandra. cf. note 7 to the first post.

2. Presumably Ajax the Greater (son of Telamon and titular hero of the Sophocles tragedy), not the Ajax who assaults Cassandra.

3. Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus.

4. A sea god.

5. The Latin here uses Mars, god of war, as metonymy for war itself.

6. This translation is excellent but does not quite do justice to this line, which likens the overlapping press of shields to a tortoise’s shell.

7. Hector’s wife; Astyanax is their very young son.

8. Fire and serpent imagery are both linked to rebirth in this book, as Troy falls and is reborn in Aeneas’s words. Cf: Laocoon, Androgeous figured as stepping on a snake, and the upcoming Ascanius hair… incident.

9. Scyros = the island of Pyrrhus’s birth.